ifitgoesfast

Back in the days when Corvettes were just cars and not Blue Chip financial assets, people did whatever-the-frick they wanted. The Grand Sport Corvettes really inspired a lot of the modifications. The GS had the numerous holes cut out the rear tail, which the 6 tail lights kind of mimic, they had one of the coolest white and pinstriped racing stripes ever conceived, bumped out finned hood, cut out louvers and rear quarter panel slits, brake scoops, short side exhaust pipes, flare fenders and bigger Halibrand wheels and cool tires.

Besides the Grand Sports, the Corvette culture was doing all sorts of things to customize their cars, and think GM missed a huge market there.

If GM was doing this with their racing examples, why did it not make production? Why did GM not pick up on the market? So what do you think GM should've offered as options, regardless of price on the C2's?

bb62

A Rochester Fuel Injection system for the big blocks.

biggd

Wheel flares with wider tires, and six tail lights. Not as options but standard. It's what everyone wanted back in the day.

MarkC

Radial tires, a 5 speed and R & P steering would have been nice.

vettebuyer6369

I remember when wheel flares and 6 taillights were popular, and I think if GM made them standard they would have lost their appeal. The whole purpose was to make your car stand out.

Even if they were options, they might have lost their lustre a bit.

sub006

Please see my post #15 in the "Driving a C2 compared to a C3" thread.

ifitgoesfast

Look at the Callaway Corvettes and C7 ZO6. Different bodies from regular production bodies. Given that GM offered a very expensive A/C option, I don't see why they could not have offered 6 tail lights as an option like how it treats the side louvers on the C7 ZO6 versus the regular C7. They could've, but I think the execs probably would've axed it all.

DansYellow66

Keeping the times in mind - a performance tire option. Not sure what that would have been - Goodyear blue streaks seemed to be the most popular. A rear speaker option in Coupes. A manually adjustable driver seat for back rake and seat bottom tilt.

biggd

Well everyone wanted wider tires and the only way to do that was wheel flares. The six tail lights was just a customizing feature back in the day but I personally think they filled the back panel out nicely.

ifitgoesfast

Were headers available off the shelf in the early 1960's, or were they a racing/fabricated part?

GTOguy

What Dan and big said. Everyone wanted better tires that could keep up with the performance level of the car. During that time period, radials were available. Wider bias belted tires were, too. GM could have widened the wheel houses a bit for a wider combo, or performed a mild flare to allow better rubber. 5 speeds and rack and pinions were not really of that era. Gas was cheap, overdrives rare. So I vote for bigger tire combos and the mods needed to make them work. That could have been done at the time, very easily.

vettebuyer6369

You are probably right regarding the tires. When I bought my first Corvette, a '65, it had rear flares and a couple holes cut for 6 taillights. (in Mass, in your neck of the woods!) Its probably true that a flare option would have been pretty popular given tire sizes.

I wasn't commenting on whether the 6 taillights was a good thing or not, just saying that back then everyone was doing all sort of customizing, crazy paint, etc, and if the 6 lights were offered by GM and became more mainstream, it seemed to me that they would be less of a "personalization" for some people.

ifitgoesfast

If 4 was standard, then 6 was awesome. If 6 was standard, then 8 or 10 even better! I'm looking at the rear tail of the Corvette Grandsport with larger and smaller holes cut out through the entire width of the rear panel and wondering what that would look like all lit red.

Or how about fixed headlights, plexi covers

426 Hemi

6 taillights in '67 instead of the back-up light maybe.

biggd

That's basically what they did with the C3's.

biggd

Ya, not everyone liked the 6 tail lights. But back then everyone wanted the widest tires they could put on the car and the only way you were able to do that was with wheel flares. Also back then Pontiac promoted the hell of the "wide Tract" as a handling feature so everyone wanted that wide tract look, not under the fenders like todays cars. C2's had a very narrow body so the wider tires gave it that sportier look and feel.

bluestreak63

Bluetooth and a heads up display would have been nice. But that might have driven up the cost I guess.

SI67

As an option? With recirculating ball standard? Probably not what you meant.

You've given an excellent answer to what is really a different question: What fundamental engineering advancement(s) should have been engineered into the C2 but were not?

As you probably know but others may not, the technology, while not used by any American manufacturer at the time, had already been in use across the pond for years.

SI67

Right-side mirror. Maybe remotely adjusted?

Power vent windows. Power door locks.

Automatic day-night mirror. (Chrysler had it for a while starting in '59).

Intermittent windshield wipers.

Some sort of rear-window defogger

I've tried to restrict my list to technology available at the time, particularly items offered in other cars.

jim lockwood

Um, you mean like the '63s have?????